Role Playing Game (1984). West End Games (WEG). Designed by Greg Costikyan, Daniel Gelber, Ken Rolston, Eric Goldberg.
Playing Paranoia is an exercise in perversity and frustration, where the watchwords are "fear, ignorance and suspicion". The setting is a Post-Holocaust Underground City ruled by a Computer suffering from Paranoia and multiple personality disorder; it is characteristic that the Computer is obsessed with rooting out "mutant commies", but has itself created the ultimate in totalitarian communist societies. The world of Paranoia is similar to the Dystopian futures of Logan's Run or 1984, but played for laughs. Arguably, the game itself functions as a brutal Satire of some earlier RPGs, in which players were supposed to cooperate in a moral crusade against the forces of evil, but all too often fell to back-stabbing each other for gold and glory.
Players begin the game as troubleshooters for the Computer, but are all automatically traitors owing to their possession of illicit Mutant powers and membership of banned secret societies. Since the players are not told the details of each other's characters, but know they are more likely to survive if they inform on a fellow team member, distrust and betrayal are constant companions. This, combined with the deceptive nature of most of the Computer's stated mission objectives and the general level of violence, leads to an extremely high mortality rate; even though they are generated in batches of six identical Clones, characters often fail to survive their first mission. Many classic themes of Paranoia games are visible in the award-winning early adventure The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues (1985 WEG) designed by John M Ford, in which every secret society in the city is in pursuit of a mysterious black box which the characters are continually stumbling across. Loaded down with incomprehensible experimental Weapons and hidden agendas, the players find themselves at the top of everyone's target list, including each other's. The consistent way in which irony and black humour are built into the game mechanics as well as the setting give Paranoia one of the strongest tones of any RPG, and make it one of the few potentially qualified to be called an "art game".
There have been four new editions of Paranoia since 1984, beginning with the second (1987 WEG) designed by Greg Costikyan, Ken Rolston, which refined the game's mechanics but arguably placed too much emphasis on Parody and slapstick, and continuing with the fifth (1995 WEG) designed by Ed Stark, Greg Farshtey, which received a generally poor reception. Subsequent iterations have been created by Mongoose Publishing (MP), of which the first to be released was the much improved Paranoia XP (2004 MP; 2005 rev vt Paranoia) designed by Allen Varney. The 2009 25th Anniversary Edition then split the game into three parts: Paranoia Troubleshooters (2009 MP vt Paranoia Troubleshooters: Black Missions) designed by Allen Varney, Gareth Hanrahan – a revised version of Paranoia XP – Paranoia: Internal Security (2009 MP vt Paranoia: Internal Security: Blue Line) designed by Gareth Hanrahan – which focuses on Internal Security Troopers rather than troubleshooters – and Paranoia: High Programmers (2010 MP vt Paranoia: High Programmers: White Washes) designed by Gareth Hanrahan, which positions the players as the Computer's most powerful human servants. Inevitably, there is no third or fourth edition.
Related works: The Paranoia Complex (1989 Magic Bytes, Amiga, Amstrad, C64, Spectrum; vt Cyber World) is a related Adventure game; reviews were mixed. Paranoia: The Mandatory Card Game (2005 MP) designed by Steve Gilbert is a Collectible Card Game.
Several works of spinoff fiction have been published, including Extreme Paranoia: Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Shot (1991) by Ken Rolston; the viciously amusing Title Deleted for Security Reasons (1993) by Edward Bolme, and Stormshooters and Troubleknights (anth 1993) edited by Paul Lidberg, a crossover with Torg. A six-issue Comics series, Paranoia (1992) was written by Paul O'Connor and published by Adventure Comics. A line of Ebooks has also been published in association with the 25th Anniversary Edition. To date this sequence comprises Reality Optional (2011 ebook) by Gareth Hanrahan, Stay Alert (2011 ebook) by Allen Varney, Traitor Hangout (2011 ebook) by W J MacGuffin, and The Computer Is Your Friend (anth 2012 ebook) edited by Allen Varney. [NT]
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Everybody in Alpha Complex belongs to a service group of some description. These determine what job the clone did before becoming a Troubleshooter. Some Troubleshooters are full-time, but still have strong links to the Service Group they worked for. Other Troubleshooters are a bit like volunteer firemen - they work in the Service Group most of the time, and do Troubleshooting when The Computer needs them.
Either way, a Troubleshooter's Service Group will determine what skills they started out with.

The Service Groups are:

Internal Security IntSec are the police of Alpha Complex. While some officers openly display the fact they are in IntSec, many are undercover. Troubleshooting teams may sometimes have IntSec officers in their midst, but they will always pretend to be from another service group.

Technical Services Tech Services are the people who fix things around Alpha Complex. They tend to have good knowledge of things electrical and mechanical, but they are unlikely to know how to reprogram The Computer (before you go getting ideas). The roles of Tech Services and Power Services tend to overlap to some extent.

Research & Design While Tech Services fix things around Alpha Complex, it is R&D who actually invent the things in the first place. People from R&D tend to be reasonably good at fixing some things (but not as skilled as a Tech Services engineer), but tend to be better at doing research and coming up with novel ideas than their Tech Services counterparts.

CPU Central Processing Unit look after the day-to-day running of The Computer, and tends to be rather bureaucratic. Only the highest members of CPU are likely to have any computer programming skills though. Having said that, CPU engineers tend to be skilled at using computer terminals to search for information quickly.

Power Services Power Services look after the amenities (water, electricity, sewage, ventilation, etc) and associated cabling and piping within Alpha Complex. Sometimes a Power Services engineer will know a route out of somewhere (or into somewhere) involving cabling ducts or ventilation shafts.

PLC Production, Logistics and Commissary are responsible for agricultural and industrial production, along with the allocation of resources. Troubleshooting teams normally visit PLC to be allocated equipment before going out on a mission.

Armed Forces The army. Their job is to provide Alpha Complex with military protection.

HPD&MC Housing Preservation and Development & Mind Control look after the running of Alpha Complex when it comes to paperwork. The HPD part involves making sure everybody has somewhere to live (and that they've filled out the right forms to get it). The MC part ensures their minds are pure by providing quality vidscreen entertainment. Think what it would be like if the bureaucrats ran all the TV stations. That's what HPD&MC is like.
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A clone gets trapped in a large crate in the RAD Shipping area, when he finally escapes he finds himself in a strangely colored room filled with bald men in white robes.
Clone:
Greetings citizen, Where can I get one of those nifty robes?
Hey, what color is that anyway?

Ultra:
CITIZEN, you are in a restricted Area! This zone is class Ultraviolet!
Your presence in this area constitutes Treason. Report to GOO sector for protein reprocessing!

Clone: (begins to sweat profusely)
Uhhh, NO.

Ultra:
Citizen, Disobeying a high programmer is Treason!
Treason is punished by death!

Computer:
Warbots are being deployed! Remain calm, the computer is your Friend.

Clone:
FACT, you just told me that this was an ultraviolet clearance zone.

Computer:
That is also correct citizen.

Clone: (Speaking quickly)
FACT, allowing a person of red security clearance into a ultraviolet clearance zone is treasonous. FACT, the computer is the supreme director of Alpha complex and the beloved protector of all citizens THEREFORE responsible for keeping me from entering area's outside my security clearance as well as protecting the security, nay the very existence of Alpha Complex by protection the High programmers by keeping intruders out of ultraviolet areas. the clone takes a huge breath and continues.

THEREFORE wouldn't YOU guilty of treason?

Computer:
The computer cannot commit treason.
To doubt the computer is treason.

Clone:
I agree, the computer is the beloved defender of Alpha complex. The computer is my friend and would never do anything that would cause me to commit treason, THEREFORE I am not in an Ultraviolet zone.

Computer:
Primary logic core failure 1:209:144-4

Clone:
At my security clearance am I allowed in this location?

Computer:
That information is not available at your security clearance citizen.

Clone:
So if the Computer cannot commit treason and dispensing information about ultraviolet level security to a red clearance citizen is treason as well as being in an ultraviolet area is treason and this is an ultraviolet area then where am I and how did I get here?

Computer:
Secondary Logic Failure!
A General protection fault has occurred in the module KERNEL.EXE
A blue screen appears and the whole sector goes black.

Clone:
Computer, What is the security clearence of this area?
Computer?

Well, this didn't really happen like that in one game. I usually wind up the one running the game and only rarely do I recieve the joy of a player that devious. The general idea was kind of reconstructed from various incidents in games I have run/played in. I actually only pulled this as a player once, I managed to corral the computer into trying to resolve a logical paradox. The GM ruled that it crashed the local node of the computer logic core and the whole sector crashed. Including the primary power grid... and the pumps to the reactor core two levels below the building was in... and the transport tubes leading out...
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Problems in Alpha Complex are solved by teams of Troubleshooters, whose job is to find trouble and shoot it. Threats include Traitors, Communists and other secret societies, unregistered Mutants, and Commie Mutant Traitors. This mission is complicated by the facts that Alpha Complex is a Communist state, and, thanks to years of clone breeding, overexposure to radiation and other snafus, every last one of its inhabitants is a mutant. Everyone is also a member of one or more secret societies (mostly) plotting to overthrow the order of Alpha Complex. These groups include, but are not limted to:

Anti-Mutants, who (as the name suggests) despise all mutants, including registered ones. Their goal is doomed to inevitable failure because, like everyone else, they are mutants, just ignorant or in denial about it.

Communists, who are around mainly because of the Computer's crackdown on communism, and are rather confused about actual communist ideology. (For examples, they are proud to follow the ideals of Groucho Marx and John Lennon.)

Corpore Metal, who strive to create a world where robots and cyborgs rule. Which seems silly for a society run by a super-computer, but actually makes sense because all the mechanical intelligences have Asimov circuits that force them to obey an insane computer.

Death Leopard, a loose coalition of gangs whose philosophy is part anarchism, part Wacky Fratboy Hijinx.

First Church of Christ, Computer Programmer, a quasi-underground church that reveres the Computer as an aspect of God. Tend to get a slap on the wrist at worst, as The Computer is more bewildered at the idea than anything else.

Frankenstein Destroyers, a band of robot and cyborg-hating Luddites. Whether The Computer counts as "a really big robot that can't move" is sometimes a point of contention.

Free Enterprise, a Mafiaesque organization that runs the "Infrared Market."

Humanists, who want the Computer to be subordinate to human governance, and would have gotten somewhere if they weren't constantly bogged own by infighting and red tape.

The Illuminati, a secret society so secret, most of its members don't even know its true purpose. They're not a conventional society in the sense that they plant their members in other secret societies. They also don't exist.

Mystics, hippie stereotypes who largely use their pursuit of oneness with the cosmos as an excuse to take recreational *****, even above and beyond what Friend Computer already assigns.

Pro Tech, a group of technology lovers who steal (and fiddle with) technology any chance they get. Members can frequently be identified due to the sheer number of blinking gadgets on their person.

Psion, a secret society devoted to mutant supremacy.

PURGE, a terrorist organization devoted to overthrowing The Computer violently, but hasn't put much thought into what will come after. Naturally, their terrorist actions are always blamed on the Communists.

Trekkies, about what you think. They all wear pointy rubber ears and jerry-rig their lasers to look like phasers. Ironically, despite membership in the Trekkies being obvious, it's the only society never punished by The Computer because it's so obviously harmless.

The Romantics, who idolize the virtues of the "Golden Age", a piecemeal reconstruction of Earth history.

The Sierra Club, who are obsessed with the environment and the mysterious "Outdoors", access to which is strictly limited by The Computer.

The International Workers of the World (Wobblies), described in the first edition supplement Acute Paranoia. The Computer heard about this society and sent Troubleshooters to spy on it. The problem was that it did not exist (the Real Life Wobblies fell apart before Alpha Complex was created), and when the Troubleshooters returned with no information they were quickly executed for insubordination. A dozen or so teams later, one set of Troubleshooters got wise and founded the society solely so they could spy on it. The other societies sent spies to infiltrate this new group, and the end result is a group composed entirely of spies for other groups.

The PCs are (usually) Red-level Troubleshooters working for Friend Computer, grudgingly assigned useless, backfiring equipment and weapons, and dispatched on (often impossible) Suicide Missions, all while navigating the endless deathtrap which is Alpha Complex, keeping their mutant powers a secret, advancing the cause of their secret society, and trying to earn promotion to higher color grades. The over-the-top darkly satiric tone of the game ensures that Hilarity Ensues as the player characters try to juggle their responsibilities, or at least survive for a while. Player infighting is encouraged, to the point that some editions recommend that there should never be a greater danger than each other, and turnover is so high each player gets several backup clones with which to replace themselves if, or rather when they die. And after all that comes the truly dangerous part: the mission debriefing. [2] Just remember, Citizen, Happiness Is Mandatory! Insufficient happiness will be punished by termination!
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